[Modification date: 05/24/2012]
Here are some detailed instructions for setting up your laptop to access
the UCSC computers so that you can run IDL and access/analyze some of our
astronomical data on Andromeda:
[The actual commands you would need to type are preceded by *** - don't
type in the asterisks when you type the commands!]
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1. Make sure your laptop has a Unix terminal emulator. I use the X11
terminal on my MacBook Pro laptop running OS X - and recommend you use
this if you have a newish Mac. There are also many other varieties of
free "ssh client" software available for Macs and PCs if you prefer one
of those.
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2. Here's how you can access the UCSC astro computer network using a guest
account. From a terminal window, type:
*** ssh -XYC ssh.ucolick.org -l gst131
*** [enter password]
[YOU WILL NEED TO GET THIS PASSWORD FROM ME (VIA SKYPE OR PHONE:
408.455.3036). THIS IS THE PREFERRED WAY. PLEASE DO *NOT*, UNDER ANY
CIRCUMSTANCES, EMAIL THIS PASSWORD TO ONE ANOTHER.]
*** ssh -XYC puccini
*** cd
[Get your work space directory from Raja]
*** cp /usr/local/www/raja/plot_star_cmd.pro ./
*** cp /usr/local/www/raja/plot_vhist.pro ./
[Copy over two existing IDL programs into your work space directory. Note
the period and slash at the end of the commands are important to type.]
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3. Running IDL:
*** /u/ekirby/eidl
[This starts up IDL. In IDL, try typing the following commands and see
what happens. The two programs below are very simple programs that I
have written: the first generates a plot of data points in (x,y) space
and the second generates histograms of data.]
The old instruction here was to type in "deepidl". This works too, but
that version of IDL is not nearly as capable as "eidl".
*** .r plot_star_cmd.pro
*** plot_star_cmd
Or you can try:
*** .r plot_vhist.pro
*** plot_vhist
*** exit
[This gets you out of IDL.]
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4. Here's how to modify the above IDL programs to suit your needs. This
has to be done *outside* IDL. You can either exit IDL and take the
following steps. Or you can type this in from a different X11 terminal
window after logging into the UCSC network (using the commands in block
#2 above).
*** cp plot_star_cmd.pro test.pro
or
*** cp plot_vhist.pro test.pro
[This makes a copy of one of the above two sample IDL programs and
renames it test.pro.]
*** vi test.pro
or
*** emacs test.pro
[The commands "vi" and "emacs" bring up two different text file
editing programs. Or you can copy the "test.pro" file to your laptop,
edit the version on your laptop (say using the TextEdit software on a
Mac) and copy the modified "test.pro" file back to the UCSC network.
For this you would type the following from an X11 terminal on your
laptop.]
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